Higher ed stories included assault intervention, new O'Dome

Wednesday

A sexual assault near campus in which a University of Florida football player and his co-worker intervened was one of 2016's top headlines in higher education.

Christopher Lee Shaw was sentenced last month to 5 years in state prison after entering a no contest plea and being convicted on a sexual battery, court records show.

Cristian Garcia, a UF walk-on linebacker, and Leroyea Simmons were taking out trash from Cantina 101 at about 2:20 a.m. July 22 and saw Shaw on an intoxicated woman.

Shaw told the two the woman was his girlfriend, but Simmons said he and Garcia saw the woman was barely conscious.

"I turned around and pulled the guy by the shoulder and said 'Get off.' That pretty much ended the situation then," Garcia said. "He was intoxicated and attempted to throw some punches, but he slipped and busted his face on the wall."

Simmons and Garcia took care of the woman, contacting her friends for help, while Shaw left the scene with his friends.

The woman, who was 19, told police she didn’t know Shaw and didn’t consent to having sex with him.

Ashley Cook, press secretary at the state corrections department, said inmates must serve 85 percent of their sentence — in Shaw's case, just more than four years. He was credited for about four months already served.

Callaway cleared

After being accused of sexual assault, Florida wide receiver Antonio Callaway was cleared by an attorney who was a former UF track athlete and a Gator football booster.

The attorney, Jake Schickel, earned his bachelor's and law degrees from Florida, and the woman who said Callaway sexually assaulted her boycotted Callaway’s student conduct code hearing, arguing that Schickel wouldn’t be unbiased given his history with and support for university athletics.

During the investigation into the assault accusations, Callaway was banned from campus for the spring and summer A semesters but took classes online. He returned to campus, and team workouts, during the summer B session.

No criminal charges were ever filed.

In August, Schickel cleared him of sexual assault, saying the burden of proof had not been met. Before the hearing, he told the complainant's attorney he did not believe he would be biased against either party.

Weeks later, UF fired Chris Loschiavo, associate dean of student affairs since 2007 and Title IX coordinator. Callaway's attorneys said Loschiavo had too much power in reviewing student disciplinary cases because all cases went through him.

Religion prof gets 5-year probation

The chairman of UF's religion department resigned in May after being sentenced to five years’ probation in April for video voyeurism.

Manuel Arturo Vasquez, who had been a UF religion professor since 1994, secretly recorded a teenage family member by putting a USB recording device in her closet, according to an Alachua County Sheriff's Office arrest report.

Vasquez had also served as director of the university's interdisciplinary Program for Immigration, Religion, and Social Change.

In his resignation letter, Vasquez said he had decided to resign "for personal reasons."

The device contained seven video files, only two of which had content. One video showed Vasquez placing the camera in the closet and stepping back from it several times to check its location, the October arrest report said. The other video showed the teen wearing only underwear.

The teen found the camera and said she "felt scared and uncomfortable after seeing the video recordings," according to the arrest report.

UF outlines long-range plans

In 2016, the University of Florida highlighted its plan to help create a pre-eminent city.

As it continues to strive for a top-10 spot among public universities, UF announced a strategic development plan that would mesh both the university’s and Gainesville’s long-term growth to make the city an attractive place for professors, researchers and students to move to and to stay in.

The plan includes including an arts walk to connect the Hippodrome theater downtown to Depot Park, a landscaped park median on Second Avenue and easier parking at the intersection of Southwest 13th Street and Union Road near Tigert Hall.

UF will provide $350,000 to help implement the plan.

“If we’re going to be a pre-eminent university, we need to think big,” said Charlie Lane, UF’s senior vice president and chief operating officer.

To support the university’s pre-eminent status, UF launched its campaign to double the school's endowment to at least $3 billion.

Pushing the endowment to $3 billion or more will give the university the discretionary money needed to establish more endowed professorships, increase the need-based financial aid available to students, construct modern laboratories and buildings and fund graduate student fellowships, UF President Kent Fuchs said.

The endowment campaign is the university’s largest to date.

O'Connell Center updated

The Stephen C. O'Connell Center's renovation finished in time for UF's December commencement, featuring a $2 million jumbotron, new chairback seating and club areas at the Exactech Arena.

The renovation cost $64.5 million.

The Gators played 17 games away from Gainesville through 295 days during the renovation. In their first game back, they defeated Arkansas-Little Rock, 94-71.

Also under construction throughout the year was UF Health Shands' south tower, affecting traffic and hospital parking. Once complete, Shands will have a new building for heart and vascular and neuromedicine hospitals.

Sanders, who ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, spoke to about 5,800 people on campus about income inequality, campaign corruption and a single-payer health care system.

Sanders said because a college degree can be vital in getting a job, the public education system offering free tuition for grades K-12 should be expanded to cover college.

"The bottom line is we are not going to be effective in a global economy unless all of our people have the ability and the qualifications and are able to get the education they need, regardless of their income," he said.

"You guys are rock-solid critical to this election," Kaine said to a 1,200-person-strong crowd.

UF buys Leo's By the Slice

The University of Florida Foundation bought beloved pizza joint Leonardo's By the Slice, adding to its property on 13th Street and West University Avenue.

The sale requires Leonardo's to stay open until at least the summer of 2017.

Leonardo's owner, Steve Solomon, said he was hoping to scale back his commitments. The sale allows him to focus more on Leonardo's 706 at 706 W. University Ave., the original site of Leonardo's By the Slice.

Solomon had owned Leonardo's By the Slice since 1973.

"This has been a progression," Solomon said in August, after the deal was announced and community members reminisced about pizza and garlic knots. "This was a charming 'ville. Now it wants to be something else."

SFC opens 1991 time capsule

Santa Fe College celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a musical and time capsule.

A time capsule buried in 1991, for the college's 25th anniversary, was opened December 2015 and presented in January, although the artifacts left more questions than expected, since a waterproof seal had failed.

Paper documents that may have explained the reason for including the items had disintegrated after mud seeped into the capsule.